Construction

Private building $50 million-$100 million

Venn at Main was completely redesigned at the start of excavation, adding challenges to the permitting process.

Venn at Main

Location: Bellevue

General contractor: Exxel Pacific

Owner/developer: The Wolff Co.

Primary designer: Baylis Architects

Venn at Main is a 350-unit mixed-use building located in the heart of Bellevue, on the corner of Bellevue Way and Main Street.

It has seven levels of apartments, 40,000 square feet of retail space and four levels of below-grade parking. Amenity spaces include a mezzanine fitness center with a separate yoga/spinning studio, a media room with big-screen TVs, an interior courtyard, community kitchen and game room.

At the start of excavation, the owner elected to completely redesign the structure. Such drastic revisions while construction was in progress posed many difficulties for the onsite team surrounding the permitting process. Baylis and the Exxel team were successful with executing plan revisions, including mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire-protection design-build scopes, so the project never suffered a delay due to permitting.

When Exxel finished excavation and was ready for the crane, Exxel had entered the city’s holiday moratorium (Thanksgiving through the New Year’s), when it was not allowed to set the tower crane. With an excavation 60-70 feet below street level, not having a tower crane nor the space to set a mobile at street level almost shut down the job site.

The only possible solution was to put a mobile crane into the excavation before the earthwork ramp was removed and to pick the crane back out when setting the tower crane. By doing this, Exxel was able to keep the schedule, avoid impacts to the area and properly maintain safety.